SCOOTER DIARIES 2010: 08/02/10

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AUGUST 2
This was day one in Kansas.

The plan had been to quit a 2pm because I new it was going to get hot. At 1:45 I was in Mead, KS and there was a hotel there. But no, I decided to squeeze a few more miles out. About 30 minutes into this ride, tempertures on the scooter were 109 and not a shade tree or occupied building in sight. When I came to to US283 I had the choice of going forward not knowing about a hotel for 75 miles or turn left and go into Dodge City where I knew there was a hotel. I turned left. By the time we got to Dodge City the Big Red temp gauge was reading 113.

Earlier I had to stop at a Walmart to get a new camera for just the reason I dislike Walmart. They had driven everybody out of buisness within 60 miles. As you can see the new camera is not up to my normal quality. Hopefully I will figure it out.

All along this trip people have stopped me to talk about the scooter. Often the people even know that it is a Vespa. At Walmart, I young guy searched me out to talk about the Vespa. In Syracuse, Dave came out to the parking lot to talk about the scooter. His great-great-grandfather had come to this town in a covered wagon. Dave had left for 23 years ago for Texas and when his third wife threw him out he came back home.

dave in syracuse

AUGUST 3
The plan for today was get up and start riding in the dark and get out of Kansas at all cost. For some reason I felt that if I got out of Kansas cool breezes would begin blowing. I knew this was not true but I was going with. No U turns and no stop for pictures. Just straight ahead. The camera was not taking good pictures yet and if I stopped I would wind up messing with and all that would happen was it would get hotter. With the old camera I would have had to make some u turns as there were some good pictures passed up.